Steve Fonyo helped save untold numbers of Canadians when he raised $13 million for cancer research in a 1985 cross-country run.

More recently, he saved himself.

After he finished the job begun by Terry Fox, Fonyo — who at age 12 also lost a leg to bone cancer — became a national hero at 19. He was acclaimed from sea to shining sea and named an Officer of the Order of Canada.

The years following his run were far from idyllic, however. Fonyo slipped into a life of drugs, booze and petty crime that made shambles of the last 30 years of his life. It was a downward spiral captured in the devastating documentary, Hurt (2015), from award-winning filmmaker Alan Zweig.

The movie Hurt ends with a home invasion in Surrey, B.C., and with Fonyo stabbed, beaten and left for dead.

Astonishing, then, to find Hope, the new documentary from Zweig that follows Fonyo’s journey back to the land of the living.

With a helping hand from art, nature, faith and therapy, Fonyo has turned his life around.

That’s the story told in Hope, which had its world premiere on Saturday night at Toronto’s Hot Docs film festival. It was shown again on Sunday morning at Bell Lightbox and will hit the big screen again this Saturday, May 6.

Both Steve Fonyo and Alan Zweig were in town to promote the movie.

After two months at a rehab facility in Powell River, B.C., Fonyo, 51, decided to stay and make a new life for himself in the Sunshine Coast town.

It’s a huge change from the squalor and chaos of Surrey.

Among those who have helped Fonyo’s ongoing recovery are his girlfriend, Lisa Marie, and the Jehovah’s Witness community in Powell River — but Mother Nature has played a big role, too. The spectacular landscape and general tranquillity of Powell River seem to have had a profound effect on Fonyo’s state of mind.

“Where we live, there’s no crime,” he says. “No theft. No problem with anything. We don’t even lock our house. We go to the grocery store, we leave our car key in the ignition. You can’t do that in Surrey.”

He adds, “My girlfriend feels safe and happy. She can walk the dog at night, which she couldn’t for years. I can sleep at night and not worry about locking the doors and windows.”

Filmmaker Zweig confirms the power of the environment in Fonyo’s progress.

“The idea that much of the good would come from simply relocating him did not occur to us, but I think that’s what happened. If we have helped him change his life, probably the biggest factor is simply relocating him to a place that was better for him in so many ways. And that’s why, probably, it’s the first time I’ve made a film where I’ve tried to make the landscape into a bit of a character.

“Because I really think it had something to do with what happened to him.”

As for Fonyo’s recovery, Zweig says, “I’m cautiously optimistic. It’s all you can be.”

Meanwhile, one of the men responsible for attacking Fonyo in Surrey has been arrested and will stand trial in a few months.

“I almost died,” says Fonyo, “And these guys ruined their lives for some stupid reason, why, I don’t understand. But if it hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t be in Powell River … and I wouldn’t have had this whole other side to my life. So this is the path I was chosen to take, and I’m good with it.”

ABOUT THAT ORDER OF CANADA

Could someone please return Steve Fonyo’s Order of Canada?

In 2009, Fonyo’s honours were revoked by the Governor General’s office for his many criminal convictions.

He has described that reversal as one of the lowest points of his life.

“They took my Order of Canada,” he said at the time, “but they can never take away what I did for Canada.”

Fonyo losing his Order of Canada is what first drew Alan Zweig’s attention to the fallen hero, eventually leading to the movies Hurt and Hope.

“That’s when he came back on my radar,” says Zweig.

“And I thought, that’s kind of sh–y that they took the Order of Canada away from him. He ran across Canada — he did the thing you gave it to him for, even if he didn’t live an exemplary life afterward. When somebody is a hero, we would like to believe that that extends to every corner of their personality and character, and that’s ridiculous.”

Asked how he thinks Canadians seem him now, Fonyo says, without rancour, “I don’t know how they see me. I do know that when you’re down, people will kick you. That’s my experience. I’m not trying to be negative, but, with all the troubles in my life, they take away the Order of Canada … if the tables were turned, I wouldn’t have done that. I would have asked for a report before taking away the medal.”

Fonyo adds, “Anyway, it took me a long time to find my way again. But I’ve had a second chance at life.”

There’s something heroic about Fonyo’s uphill battle to remake his life.

Not surprisingly, there’s a movement afoot to have him reinstated as an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Please add my name to the list of those who would like to see that happen.

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